Foster + Partners’ Principal Place development in Shoreditch completes

Principal Tower, the final piece of the Principal Place mixed-use scheme on the edge of the City of London, has completed

The development comprises a 15-storey office building, currently occupied by Amazon’s London headquarters, alongside the 50-storey Principal Tower, which the AJ covered in 2018 as it neared completion. Six restaurants wrap around the scheme’s base.

The tower, the original plans for which were launched in September 2014, is formed of three slim volumes: with a lower face towards the more residential side of Shoreditch, a taller element facing west reflecting the higher-rise nature of the City, and a central volume rising up between.

The 161.5m-high building offers a variety of apartment sizes, topped by penthouses, with typically eight apartments per floor: four two-bedroom units occupying the main corners of the plan, and four one-bedrooms between. The square floorplate has been extended in the centre of two façades, creating a cruciform plan with eight corners. Each corner forms a curved balcony, allowing all units to be dual aspect, with their bronze exterior detailing softening the tower’s profile. The bedrooms are enclosed by solid cladding panels, with the remainder of the apartments being fully glazed and protected by shading fins.

The main entrance to the office building opens out on to a new plaza. Internally, floorplates contain open-plan workspace, extending in places over 100 metres in length, with three ‘wing cores’ on the north and south façades clearly articulated.